Intel recently unveiled the Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100, the newest System-on-Chip (SoC) in a family of media processors designed to bring Internet content and services to digital TVs, DVD players and advanced set-top boxes. Also, Intel has invested $500K in TransGaming a Canada based company which is launching an on demand gaming service called Gametree.tv. If successful could this eliminate the need to buy separate consoles like a PS3 or Wii?

I have in the past paid for subscription services like Netflix and Blockbuster for movie rentals. This makes sense if you are an avid movie watcher and get the convenience of renting by mail, locally or watching streamed. The thought has often crossed my mind on why something like this is not available for games. The current model where you buy a console and then are limited to games for that console only seems too heavy and “unstreamlined”. And if you have a family with teenagers you can relate to having 3 current game consoles (I have a PS3, PS2, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Gamecube, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and all previous versions of Nintendo consoles) you have to wonder why we can’t have a service that combines these so we don’t have so much hardware to store (except maybe handhelds where the usage model is different).

Also take into account that you buy a game for $40-$50 vs a subscription service that offers a multitude of games seems like a win win for the consumer. Now how about the game companies and publishers?

Granted that each publisher and console company wants their share but maybe by combining their games in a subscription pool there can be cost benefits by getting games to audiences that may have never played their game due to the cost of buying yet another new game. This should be an attractive option to smaller game publishers to get their games to a large audience without having them buy a lesser known game.

We are moving towards an era of consumer electronics that move away from the linear model to a multi streamed internet model with a wide variety of choices like internet, 3d gaming, social media to complement the TV. An online gaming subscription service seems to be where we will be in the future.